


Embers

by SpaceTravels



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 16:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13127514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceTravels/pseuds/SpaceTravels
Summary: "Rey was exhausted.  Each night she would diligently plan her activities for the next day as she had always done her entire life, but tonight her mind teetered here and there in its tiredness.  She simply could not plan, not when her heart ached in her chest like this."A one-shot in which the Force connection between Rey and Kylo Ren allows them to settle a few things between themselves, but not before they have it out.





	Embers

**Author's Note:**

> Whoever knew a little bit of Ahch-To hand touching could be so hot? Our two space lovebirds will now take it up a notch by letting Rey's hair down. 
> 
> The Last Jedi was amazing and all I can say now is...JJ...take us home! :-)

     Rey hummed quietly to herself, an old song from Jakku, that she had often used to comfort herself as a child.  Tears pricked behind her eyes as she desperately fought her own memories.  Since escaping Crait, she had kept herself unrelentingly busy to avoid precisely these thoughts.  To fight away the crushing remembrance of how many years she had passed enslaved on that barren planet with only the hopeless hope that her family would return for her, that it had all been a big mistake and they had somehow lost her, or at least, had left her behind for an inarguably good reason.  She had pulled herself through it all based on the biggest lie she had created for herself.  

_Kylo Ren_ , she seethed suddenly.

_He_ had torn her world apart and tossed its pieces aside carelessly.  He had said the most vile things to her, and then gone on to attempt to kill her and all of the people she held dear.  Had Luke and she not saved them, Kylo Ren would have destroyed the only people who had shown her loyalty and love.  People who were so unlike himself - a traitorous, murderous snake.  He had betrayed their connection…and in doing so, he had _betrayed_ her.

     Rey’s lip trembled as she began the melancholic process of unwinding her arm bands, grateful at least for the soft light and warmth of the firelight in her private quarters within the Resistance’s latest hideout.  When she finished with that task, she lay the rolled fabric carefully on the small ledge beside the jagged remains of her lightsaber, before leaning her hand against the wall of her modest chamber.  She sighed as her fingers absentmindedly traced small patterns on the smooth walls.  

     Rey was exhausted.  Each night she would diligently plan her activities for the next day as she had always done her entire life, but tonight her mind teetered here and there in its tiredness.  She simply could not plan, not when her heart ached in her chest like this.  She wondered if a better plan for the next day was for her to sleep an entire night and day through, something unheard of in a scavenger’s life. Rey slowly undid her brown leather belt and let the fabric of her grey dress fall from her shoulders, carefully gathering it and laying it over a chair. She shrugged out of her dark tunic until she was clad only in an undershirt and trousers.  Her fingers went to undo the waist ties so she could begin to shimmy her way out of her leggings.

     “Stop. _Please_.” 

     Rey froze, not daring to even look over her shoulder.  Complete and utter silence followed, though she knew that voice and presence - unmistakable as it was.  She breathed once deeply, before slowly, finally, turning around to face _him_.

     Kylo Ren stood not more than a metre away from her and he looked ragged and tired.  His dark hair was wild and unkempt, his eyes edged by dark circles, and the overall impression he gave was of a man near madness.  Rey’s eyes dipped briefly downwards, and she gave the slightest sigh of relief to see that he was fully clad in a loose dark tunic and loose casual trousers.  When her eyes rose to meet his again, she found them roving over her bare skin that unbeknownst to her, shone a dewy golden hue with the fire’s light.  She tore her eyes away to look off to the side.  

     “Why are you here?” she asked coldly.  

     “I wish I knew,”  he said, his voice laced with regret.  

     “If it is your master who did this, can’t you figure out how to undo it?  Are we supposed to be stuck together like this forever now because he’s dead?”  

     He stepped forward, his dark eyes scanning her face.  “Is that how you see this?  Being stuck together…with me?” he asked, something oddly wistful in his tone.

     Rey closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head slightly.  “It’s your fault.  You threw _everything_ away to become the Supreme Leader of the First Order.  Everything.  Your uncle is gone, and now, who’s next?  Your mother?”  she hissed at him.  

     He lunged forward and grabbed her roughly by the arms, his bare fingers grasping her soft flesh firmly to shake her as his features twisted with rage.  Rey was assaulted with an image of a black gloved thumb, moving decidedly aside from the trigger button on the weapons system of a First Order fighter, even as twin laser beams flanked his vessel before obliterating the bridge of the Raddus.  Rey tried unsuccessfully to grapple with this new piece of information, to understand this man staring into her eyes so imploringly.  So he had killed Han, hadn’t chosen to kill Leia, killed Snoke, and then had attempted to destroy her and Luke.  How could she even begin to navigate through his contradictions?

     Her hand rose with lightning quickness to strike his face with such a resounding slap, that his entire head jerked to the side with the abrupt impact.  “Don’t you dare touch me.  Don’t you dare do anything with me.  I am done with you.  And I will not hesitate to kill you, _Kylo Ren_ , the next time I see you.”  

     “Good,” he murmured, his eyebrows furrowed with pain, “then we have an understanding,”  the red imprints of her fingers clearly visible on his pale skin.  Something in those soulful dark eyes gave Rey a moment of pause though she quickly solidified her resolve again.

     “So, then?”  she asked.  “You can leave anytime now,”  she said, crossing her arms across her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.

     Kylo bit his lip, his eyes scanning the surroundings with evident frustration.  When finally he spoke, his voice was softer, richer.   “I am not in control of this.  I can’t just leave, just the same as I don’t decide when to come to you.”  

     “Suit yourself then,”  she said, walking across to her bed and pulling back the neatly made covers and blankets.  “I am going to sleep.  Hopefully you will get lost soon,”  she muttered, before climbing into the bed, and turning herself deliberately away from him.  She settled into her pillows - more abundant than she had ever known - and arranged herself until she was comfortable.  

     “I am already lost,”  he said quietly.  Rey felt, rather than saw, how he shifted around uncomfortably until she felt the weight of him perch on the edge of her bed.  She stiffened immediately, taken aback by his gall.

     “What are you doing?” she demanded, her body coiling up ready to fight if it became necessary.  

     “Relax, Rey.  I just want to watch you until I go away,”  he said.  Rey dared to peer over her shoulder and she found him bent over with his elbows on knees and his face in his hands, rubbing it tiredly.  His fatigue was evident even in the lines of his body, in the slight sag of his shoulders, even as his muscles rippled clearly under the soft black fabric he wore.  

    “Oh is that all?  I mean, that’s not the least bit weird, is it?” she asked dryly.  She heard a small huff of amusement.  

     “I _am_ a monster, Rey.  Weird is the least of my concerns,”  he sighed, “Now, go to sleep. No harm will come to you from me. I promise.” 

     Rey turned her head away and settled back into her pillows and closed her eyes.  Minutes passed and though her body ached for slumber, she could not rest.  Not with him right there.  She huffed exasperatedly.  

     “I can’t sleep like this,” she spoke, her tone betraying her frustration.  Rey turned to find him watching her intently, his expression soft and vulnerable.  “This is all just….too strange.  Even for us.”  

     He nodded silently, and Rey’s eyebrows furrowed together when she saw his eyes were wet with tears.  Rey felt her eyes begin to water as well.  Silence fell between them and Rey felt her emotions surge uncontrollably within her.

     “Why, Ben?  Why did you save me from Snoke?  So you could possess my power as he possessed your’s?”  she asked, her voice shaking.  The question had replayed itself so many times since that day, and now it had just burst forth from her.  

     He looked shocked, as if it never occurred to him that she had seen things that way.  She felt his mind working at lightening speed, trying to understand.  He cleared his throat.  “No, Rey.  Never that,”  he said thickly, though earnestly.  His eyes scanned her face and his hand reached to touch her before he caught himself and promptly lowered it away.  “I could never possess you.  How could I?  You are my equal in every way…except…-“

     “Except for that I am a nobody who was sold for a bottle of booze by filthy garbage-pickers,” she said bitterly, though her voice cracked under the strain of the truth. 

     Ben shook his head as he recoiled from her harsh words that mirrored his of not so long ago.  “No, Rey, No.  Except that…you are stronger than me.  Stronger than I could ever hope to be.  You are more than I will ever be,” he finally said as his eyes locked with hers.   

     Rey drew in a sharp breath, her eyes scanning his face for any sign of dishonesty.  She did not sense any deceit in his words.  Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, struggling to understand how to place his words in the context of the so much that had already passed between them.

     His face gentled and softened as he watched her.  “You are tired.  You need to rest.  Let me help you.  I promise not to bother you anymore, as much as I can help it.”

     There was something so sweet and earnest in the way he spoke, and in the pleading expression in his eyes that Rey could only nod silently.  

     “Lay back down the way you were.” he said, scooting over so he sat more closely behind her.  Rey held her breath as his hand came to rest lightly on her lower arm and moved slowly upwards along its length, causing every nerve-ending to spark to life.  His large hand skimmed softly up her neck and into her hair, before his fingers moved to carefully pull the ties from her soft, shining chestnut waves.  He coursed through her tresses gently, painstakingly untangling anywhere he found resistance.  Then the fingers of both hands wove through her locks and massaged her scalp tenderly, relaxing all of the muscles in her head and shoulders.  His hands worked magic, making Rey’s eyes droop with all of her fatigue, as sleep moved over her like a plush blanket.  In her half conscious state, she thought she felt him lean over and place a gentle kiss on the shell of her ear before she finally drifted away.  

     “ _I have seen you all my life, but I have only just found you._ ” The words breezed past her consciousness like the gentle winds of a calm Jakku evening.  

     When Rey woke the next morning from the deepest slumber she had had in a long time, she already knew that he was gone.   Her eyes settled upon the place on her bed, still creased and dented, from where he had sat.  Rey breathed out as her eyes moved to the dying embers from the fire of last night.  She rose from the bed, reaching for the prod to stoke the flames and fill her room with warmth again.  It was only then that her eyes turned to the small wooden table beside her threadbare chair, her gaze falling curiously upon a cylindrical metal object that sat there.  She called it to her with the Force, inspecting the broken hilt of the lightsaber, the other half to what she already possessed.  As she held the half hilt in her open palm, her cheeks warmed with a sudden recognition.  She was in love with Ben Solo, and she would fight for that which she loved.

**Author's Note:**

> For those readers who don't know this, the taking down of someone's hair is an intensely intimate act in the culture of Alderaan, where mama Leia is from. So, if the hand touching in the Last Jedi was essentially hand sex, what has that naughty Ben Solo gone and done now? ;-)))
> 
> Kudos are always welcome and appreciated. If you have time, please leave a comment too - I would love to hear your thoughts! Merry Christmas to all!


End file.
